Perkins Observatory
, |coordinates= |rating= |map= |16}} }} Perkins Observatory, in Delaware, Ohio, USA, is an observatory built in 1923, funded by mathematician, . It is famous for housing the “ ” that picked up the wow signal! in 1977. The Perkins observatory section, is reportedly haunted by the ghost of its inventor, designer, and benefactor—Hiram Perkins. Background The observatory was managed by the Ohio State University. In 1963, the University added a Radio Telescope onto the observatory (A radio telescope that could detect radio signals). During its time in operation the Perkins Observatory radio telescope (Sometimes called the 'big ear'). Detected a Signal that matched the signature of the signal that the radio antenna was using, this was seen as proof of life in space and came to be known as the Wow Signal, based on a scientist who wrote 'Wow!' on the signal printout. The Observatory then ran into some tough times however, Light Pollution and cloudy weather proved problematic. This meant that the university stopped looking after the Observatory and the telescope was sold to Lowell Observatory in Nebraska, in the nineteen nineties, the Big ear broke. However, Recently the observatory was bought by Astronomer, Tom Burns, Burns re-activated the observatory and expanded it, and also bought it a new telescope. The Observatory is still active today and demostations are shown every friday and saturday night. Hiram Perkins Hiram Perkins was a professor of astonomy and mathmatics and astronomy at the Ohio Wesleyan University. Born in 1833, the American Civil war began in 1861 when Perkins was twenty eight. He went to join the unionist army but was turned down as he was considered too frail to fight (He was six foot four inches tall but only weighed ninety seven pounds). Perkins however still believed that it was his duty to help the unionists, and so he temporarily retired from his university work to use his mathematical skills to raise pigs so that he could sell salted pork to the Unionist army for the soldiers to eat. Perkins's choice to do this made him a millionare. However, Perkins was a devout and strict Methodist, and believed it to be immoral to amass a fortune from war. Because of this, Perkin's invested his money into astonomical research. He used his money to build an Observatory by his house, This Observatory was small and came to be known as the Students Observatory. Because Perkins used it to teach, No proper research was ever done in the Student's Observatory however, due to its location. In 1907, Perkins retired from teaching and started dedicating the rest of his time to "an astronomical observatory of importance". Perkins drew up plans for an impressive telescope and spent years creating blueprints for this observatory. After fifeteen years of this, in 1923, Perkins was able to secure a piece of land that he could build his Observatory on. With the help from the university in which he used to work, construction began in 1923 with Hiram Perkins himself to be guest of honour at the opening ceremony. By this point however, Perkins was ninety years old, he died a year after construction of his conservatory began and never got to see it completed. Hauntings The Completed Observatory was named after Perkins. After completion, some report that the ghost of Hiram Perkins haunts the Observatory—upset that he never got to use his observatory, yet elated that it has become such a success.